|
on Africa |
| By: | Alexander Moradi |
| Abstract: | Sub-Sahara African populations are tall relative to the extremely adverse disease environment and their low incomes. Selective mortality, which removes shorter individuals leaving taller individuals in the population, was proposed as an explanation. From heights of surviving and non-surviving children in Gambia, we estimate the size of the survivorship bias and find it to be too small to account for the tall adult heights observed in sub-Saharan Africa. We propose instead a different yet widely ignored explanation: African populations attain a tall adult stature, because they can make up a significant amount of the growth shortfall after age 5. This pattern is in striking contrast to other developing countries. Moreover, mortality rates are relatively low after age 5 adding further doubts about selective mortality. |
| Keywords: | adult height, mortality, sub-Saharan Africa, catch-up growth |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-17&r=afr |
| By: | Servaas van der Berg (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Krige Siebrits (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Bongisa Lekezwa (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the nature and effects of social grants programmes in South Africa against the backdrop of international trends in the reform of social assistance systems. It shows that South Africa has a well-developed social assistance system that significantly reduces extreme poverty, in part because the grants are very well targeted. The review of existing literature and new evidence presented in this paper suggest that the grants influence the behaviour of recipients and potential recipients in various ways, not all of which are necessarily benign. The paper also highlights the scope for further research on the potential of workfare programmes, conditional cash transfer programmes and other innovative social assistance schemes in the South African context. |
| Keywords: | Social security, social grants, social pensions, child support grants, effects of social assistance, South Africa |
| JEL: | H31 H53 I38 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers115&r=afr |
| By: | Servaas van der Berg (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Krige Siebrits (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | This paper reflects on the current state and likely future of the South African social assistance system, focusing specifically on its fiscal sustainability, its effectiveness as an instrument to combat poverty in a longer-term developmental sense, and its impact on the allocation of resources. Despite showing that the grants system is an effective intervention which markedly reduces poverty and apparently does not have severe undesirable behavioural effects, the paper argues that the scope for strengthening anti-poverty policy in South Africa by further expanding the social grants system nonetheless has become very limited. The main policy conclusions of the paper are that sustainable poverty reduction in South Africa requires inclusive job-creating economic growth, and that anti-poverty policy should remain focused on achieving his objective. |
| Keywords: | Social grants, Effects of social grants, Labour market outcomes, Anti-poverty policy, South Africa |
| JEL: | H31 H53 I38 J65 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers116&r=afr |
| By: | Balogun, Emmanuel Dele |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the key issues and assesses the impact of the rules of origin (RoO) and cumulation on Nigeria’s international trade within the context of Africa-EU partnerships agreements. The review of literatures shows that RoO are an important element in determining the final benefit associated with the bilateral trade relationship under preferential trade agreements. It notes that Africa-EU bilateral trade relations dates back to the Lome Conventions that gave preferential entry into EU of some products, and now to the new Africa-EU partnership which lays less emphasis on RoO. An analysis of available data show that RoO have had limited impact on Nigeria’s exports trade with the EU since her major exports (crude oil) does not benefit from RoO. Instead, there has been an increase in intermediate imports from EU which suggests trade creation in favour of EU while the rising trend in trade within Africa could be the result of bilateral cumulation and intra-Africa FTAs/economic integration. The paper further argues that the increase in trade with USA and others may be the result of trade reorientation as a result of switching from EU to other cheaper partner countries, especially USA in the face of AGOA. Among the challenges which militate against the RoO are: global reduction in tariff by WTO and the changing focus of the objectives of Africa-EU partnership principles from PTA to regional support. In concluding, the paper notes that the new partnership agreements needs to reconsider its position on RoO as it is a potent tool that is mutually beneficial in partnership. As such, the EU must go beyond the WTO GSP and AGOA to give preferential treatment to goods originating from Africa. |
| Keywords: | Rules of origin; international trade; Africa-EU partnership; Lome Conventions; preferential trade agreements. |
| JEL: | F13 F1 F53 |
| Date: | 2010–07–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23921&r=afr |
| By: | Paolo Falco; Andrew Kerr; Neil Rankin; Justin Sandefur; Francis Teal |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the question as to why we observe such large differentials in earnings in urban African labour markets after controlling for observable human capital. We first use a three year panel across Ghana and Tanzania and find common patterns for both countries assuming that movement between occupations is exogenous. Unobserved individual market ability is by far the most important factor explaining the variance of earnings. Sector differences do matter even with controls for ability and the sectoral gap between private wage employment and civil servants is about 50 per cent, once we control for unobserved time-invariant factors. Wage earners earn the same as the selfemployed in both Ghana and Tanzania. An additional important aspect of formality is enterprise size. At most half of the OLS effect of size on earnings can be explained by unobservable ability. Workers in largest firms are the high earners with wage rates which exceed those of civil servants. We then use an extension of the Ghana panel to five years to assess the extent of possible biases from the assumption of exogenous movement. We find evidence that this is important and that OLS may be understating the extent of both the size effect and the private sector wage (negative) premium. The implications of our results for understanding the nature of formal and informal employment in Africa are discussed. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-03&r=afr |
| By: | Mohsin S. Khan (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | Since the 1990s there have been a number of major changes in the design and conduct of monetary policy. In a globalized environment, there is less time to adjust to shocks and greater need to achieve closer convergence of economic performance among trading partners. As a result, a number of developing countries have adopted exchange rate regimes with more flexibility, and thereby greater scope for monetary policy. Notable examples include a number of sub-Saharan African countries moving from fixed exchange-rate regimes to more flexible regimes and the adoption of formal or informal inflation targeting regimes by some of these countries. These changes have triggered considerable debate on how monetary policy should be conducted and the effects it has on the real economy. Mohsin Khan discusses the conventional objectives, targets, and instruments of monetary policy, including an analysis of the monetary transmission process. This paper examines the problems of dynamic inconsistency and inflationary bias, where governments deviate from their stated or target inflation level in order to obtain short-run output gains. Most economists now agree that any rules-based regime permits a margin for discretion, and they reject the idea that rules and discretion are mutually exclusive. As policymakers in many countries throughout the world have gravitated toward an approach based more on rules than on full discretion, a key issue is choosing an appropriate policy target, or nominal anchor. Khan discusses nominal anchors and current monetary frameworks before moving on to analyze the output effects of monetary policy. He looks at the relationship between the growth of GDP and different monetary aggregates in 20 sub-Saharan African economies and finds empirical support for the hypothesis that credit growth is more closely linked than is money growth to the growth of real GDP in these countries. |
| Keywords: | Monetary policy, Africa |
| JEL: | E52 N17 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp10-11&r=afr |
| By: | Stefan Dercon; Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero |
| Abstract: | Following the 2007 disputed Kenyan Presidential election unprecedented levels of violence erupted across the country adding to the history of troubled elections in Africa. This paper offers quantitative and qualitative evidence on the incidence, impacts and issues that triggered electoral violence. Using two surveys conducted before and after the election we find that one out of three Kenyans were affected by the violence regardless of their ethnicity and wealth. The chances of being a victim of violence were higher in areas with land conflicts and where politically-connected gangs operated. Violence, which was mainly triggered by the perception that the election had been rigged, reduced trust and social capital among communities making violence more likely to reoccur. |
| Keywords: | Voting, Electoral Violence, Rule of Law, Institutions, Africa, Kenya |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-12&r=afr |
| By: | Batista, Catia (Trinity College Dublin); Lacuesta, Aitor (Bank of Spain); Vicente, Pedro C. (Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Does emigration really drain human capital accumulation in origin countries? This paper explores a unique household survey purposely designed and conducted to answer this research question. We analyze the case of Cape Verde, a country with allegedly the highest 'brain drain' in Africa, despite a marked record of income and human capital growth in recent decades. Our micro data enables us to propose the first explicit test of 'brain gain' arguments according to which the prospects of own future migration can positively impact educational attainment. According to our results, a 10pp increase in the probability of own future migration may improve the average probability of completing intermediate secondary schooling by 8pp for individuals who do not migrate before age 16. Strikingly, this same 10pp increase may raise the probability of completing intermediate secondary schooling by 11pp for an individual whose parents were both non migrants when the educational decision was made. Our findings are robust to the choice of instruments and econometric model. Overall, we find that there may be substantial human capital gains from lowering migration barriers. |
| Keywords: | brain drain, brain gain, international migration, human capital, effects of emigration in origin countries, household survey, Cape Verde, sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | F22 J24 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5048&r=afr |
| By: | Paul Sarfo-Mensah (Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)); William Oduro (Wildlife and Range Management, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, CANR, KNUST); Fredrick Antoh Fredua (Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)); Stephen Amisah (Wildlife and Range Management, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, CANR, KNUST) |
| Abstract: | Local cosmologies and traditional perceptions of the natural environment, especially forests, have been a major influence in the management of the natural resources and biodiversity amongst rural communities in the transitional zone of Ghana. Sacred groves, which are typical outputs of traditional conservation practices, derive from indigenous religious beliefs and perceptions of forest. Sacred groves are believed to be the abode of local gods, ancestral spirits and other super natural beings. These beliefs and perceptions have in the past strongly supported the conservation of biodiversity. However, changes in local cosmologies threaten the protection of rare species, habitats and ecological processes. Data from the study confirm evidence from several studies in Ghana and elsewhere in West Africa that the tremendous ecological, social, institutional, religious and economic changes in communities that have protected sacred groves threaten the survival of these cultural artefacts. The paper demonstrates that in contemporary natural resources management, the sacred grove model may still be used as a means of restoring and protecting landscapes in indigenous communities. Even in communities where population explosion and economic pressures have reached thresholds that undermine the natural landscape, the model may still be useful to keep pockets of forests within the landscape. |
| Keywords: | Sacred Grove, Cultural Artefact, Communal Resource, Degradation, Sustainability and Biodiversity |
| JEL: | Q5 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2010.87&r=afr |
| By: | Abigail Barr; Marleen Dekker; Marcel Fafchamps |
| Abstract: | Previous analyses of the formation and comparison of community based organizations (CBOs) have used cross section data. So, causal inference has been compromised. We obviate this problem by using data from a quai-experiment in which villages were formed by government officials selecting and clustering households. Our findings are as follow: CBO co-memberships are more likely between geographically proximate households and less likely between early and late settlers, members of female headed households are not excluded, in poorer villages CBO co-membership networks are denser and, while wealthier households may have been instrumental in setting up CBOs, poorer households engage shortly afterwards. |
| Keywords: | Community Based Organizations; quasi-experiment; social networks |
| JEL: | D71 D31 O12 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-21&r=afr |
| By: | Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero |
| Abstract: | The Kenyan Constituency Development Fund (CDF) aims to alleviate poverty by allocating resources to constituencies which MPs and residents decide how to spend. In this paper we assess whether MPs’ re-election chances were affected by their management of the CDF. For this purpose we analyse the type of projects implemented by the CDF and residents’ opinion about their MP and the CDF. We find that MPs’ re-election chances were influenced by MPs’ ethnicity and by the way MPs allocated the CDF. MPs who run the most projects on education and the least on other projects such as health or water were less likely to be re-elected. |
| Keywords: | Decentralization, Accountability, Elections, Africa, Kenya |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-09&r=afr |
| By: | Eva Deuchert |
| Abstract: | It is widely believed that HIV is predominantly sexually transmitted in Sub Saharan Africa. This claim which is inconsistent with national representative data from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland, which reveals that a significant proportion of HIV infections occurred in adolescents who claim to be virgins. Two explanations for this observation have been proposed: adolescents misreport sexual status or non-sexual risks are more prevalent than previously asserted. This paper empirically uncovers the implicit assumptions underlying this discussion, by estimating the proportion of sexually transmitted HIV infections assuming that misreporting is irrelevant, and the proportion of misreporting necessary to conclude that HIV is predominantly sexually transmitted. It shows that under the no-misreporting assumption, 70% of HIV cases in the respective sample of unmarried adolescent women is not due to sexual transmission. The assumption that HIV is predominantly sexually transmitted is only valid, if more than 55% of unmarried adolescent women who are sexually active have misreported sexual activity status. This research is designed to gain better understanding on the importance of different transmission modes. This is important to design combination prevention to achieve maximum impact on HIV prevention. |
| Keywords: | Population attributable fraction; non-classical measurement error; HIV transmission mode |
| JEL: | C13 C14 I12 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2010:2010-24&r=afr |
| By: | Pieter Serneels; Jose G. Montalvo; Gunilla Pettersson; Tomas Lievens; Jean Damascene Butera; Aklilu Kidanu |
| Abstract: | Background: Most developing countries face shortages of health workers in rural areas. This has profound consequences for health service delivery, and ultimately for health outcomes. To design policies that rectify these geographic imbalances it is vital to understand what factors determine health workers’ choice to work in rural areas. But empirical analysis of health worker preferences has remained limited due to the lack of data. Methods: Using unique contingent valuation data from a cohort survey of 412 nursing and medical students in Rwanda, this paper examines the determinants of future health workers’ willingness to work in rural areas, as measured by rural reservation wages, using regression analysis. These data are also combined with those from an identical survey in Ethiopia to enable a two-country analysis. Results: Health workers with higher intrinsic motivation - measured as the importance attached to helping the poor - as well as those who have grown up in a rural area, and Adventists who participate in a local bonding scheme are all significantly more willing to work in a rural area. The main Rwanda result for intrinsic motivation is strikingly similar to that obtained for Ethiopia and Rwanda together. Discussion: The results suggest that in addition to economic incentives, intrinsic motivation and rural origin play an important role in health workers’ decisions to work in a rural area, and that faith-based institutions matter. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-10&r=afr |
| By: | Neil Rankin; Justin Sandefur; Francis Teal |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of learning - through formal schooling and time spent in the labor market - in explaining labor market outcomes of urban workers in Ghana and Tanzania. We investigate these issues using a new data set measuring incomes of both formal sector wage workers and the self-employed in the informal sector. In both countries we find significant, convex returns to education and large earnings differentials between sectors when we pool the data and do not control for selection. In Ghana there is a particularly steep age-earnings profile. We investigate how far a Harris-Todaro model of market segmentation or a Roy model of selection can explain the patterns observed in the data. We find highly significant differences across occupations and important effects from selection in both countries. The data is consistent with a pattern by which higher ability individuals queue for the high wage formal sector jobs such that the age earnings profile is convex for the self-employed in Ghana once we control for selection. The returns to education are far higher in the large firm sector than in others and in this sector they are linear not convex. In both countries there is clear evidence of convexity in the returns to education for the self-employed and here the average returns are low. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-02&r=afr |
| By: | Abigail Barr; Andrew Zeitlin |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the external validity of a simple Dictator Game as a laboratory analogue for a naturally occurring policy-relevant decision-making context. In Uganda, where teacher absenteeism is a problem, primary school teachers’ allocations to parents in a Dictator Game are positively but weakly correlated with their time allocations to teaching and, so, negatively correlated with their absenteeism. Guided by a simple theoretical model, we find that the correlation can be improved by allowing for (a) variations in behavioural reference points across teachers and schools and (b) the positive effect if some School Management Committees on teacher attendance . |
| Keywords: | Public service, Education, Experiments, Africa, external validity, Methodology |
| JEL: | C91 D64 I29 O15 O17 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-11&r=afr |
| By: | Rachel Glennerster; Alexander Rothenberg; Edward Miguel |
| Abstract: | Scholars have pointed to ethnic and other social divisions as a leading cause of economic underdevelopment, due in part to their adverse effects on public good provision and collective action. We investigate this issue in post-war Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries. To address concerns over endogenous local ethnic composition, and in an advance over most existing work, we use an instrumental variables strategy relying on historical ethnic diversity data from the 1963 Sierra Leone Census. We find that local ethnic diversity is not associated with worse local public goods provision across a variety of outcomes, regression specifications, and diversity measures, and that these “zeros†are precisely estimated. We investigate the role that two leading mechanisms proposed in the literature – enforcement of collective action by strong local government authorities, and the existence of a common national identity and language – in generating these perhaps surprising findings. [Working Paper No. 269] |
| Keywords: | Etnnic diversity, Collective action, Local public goods, Sierra Leone, Africa |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2651&r=afr |
| By: | Justin Sandefur |
| Abstract: | The size of the informal sector is commonly associated with low per capita GDP and a poor business environment. Recent episodes of reform and growth in several African countries appear to contradict this pattern. From the mid 1980’s onward, Ghana underwent dramatic liberalization and achieved steady growth, yet average firm size in the manufacturing sector fell from 19 to just 9 employees between 1987 and 2003. I use a new panel of Ghanaian firms, spanning 17 years immediately post-reform, to model firm dynamics that differ markedly from well-established ‘stylized facts’ in the empirical literature from other regions. In contrast with American and European firms, entry of new firms and selection on observable characteristics, rather than within-firm growth, dominates industrial evolution in Ghana. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-05&r=afr |
| By: | Carlos Garcia (ILADES-Georgetown University, Universidad Alberto Hurtado) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this article is to determine if the Phillips curve is a relevant tool to conduct monetary policy in African countries wishing to adopt an inflation-targeting regime. I choose Nigeria as a case of study because it is in the early stage of the implementation of this regime. I estimate a medium-sized model for monetary policy analysis. The model reflects a synthesis between the New Keynesian and the Real Business Cycle (RBC) approaches. Then I estimate the model by using Bayesian econometric technique in order to overcome the shortage of data availability. The study concludes that there is evidence that central banks can control the inflation rate through a Phillips curve, a Taylor rule that includes the exchange rate, and the sterilization of the resources from oil exports. Nevertheless, there are limits to the stabilization program. The same evidence suggests that it is important to implement a credible inflation-targeting regime to reduce inflation gradually, instead of abrupt stabilization attempts with high costs in lost output. |
| Keywords: | Monetary policy, Phillips curve, inflation-target regime. |
| JEL: | E31 E52 E58 O23 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ila:ilades:inv250&r=afr |
| By: | Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the factors that shaped Kenyan’s voting intentions in the 2007 presidential election. Using data from a public opinion survey conducted two weeks before the election we are able to evaluate the relative importance of what shaped voting behavior comprehensively, taking into account factors such as ethnicity, access to public services, incidence of poverty and wealth differences across ethnic groups and across generations. We find strong evidence that ethnic identity was the main factor determining voting intentions and to a lesser extent grievances, economic well-being, and access to public and private goods. However, the relative importance of these factors depends on whether Kenyan voters identify themselves first and foremost in terms of their ethnicity, occupation or nationality. Those who identify themselves in terms of their ethnicity were influenced the most by access to public services. This evidence supports theories that suggest ethnic identity is a proxy used by voters to assess which candidate will give them greater access to public goods. |
| Keywords: | Voting behavior, ethnic identity, Kenya |
| JEL: | D72 D01 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-06&r=afr |
| By: | KOISSY KPEIN Sandrine |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the Understanding Children’s Work (UCW) definition of child labor and data from EPAM Mali to highlight the gender difference in the competition between children’s economic or non-economic labor and schooling. A Quadri-variate Probit estimation was first used to account for the interdependency between school and various kinds of child labor: household chores (HHC), market-oriented (MO) activities and non-market-oriented (NMO) activities. Then, a Clogit estimation was used to examine the incidence of time repartition among children within the household regarding the probability of schooling. Empirical results from EPAM Mali provide interesting findings, including differential gender socialization according to the gender of the offspring, gender bias in repartition of tasks and time, and competition between labor activities and schooling. |
| Keywords: | Gender; Education; Child-labor; Intra-household allocations |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J16 O12 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2010-08&r=afr |
| By: | Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah; Francis Teal; Moses Awoonor-Williams |
| Abstract: | Poverty has halved in Ghana over the period from 1991 to 2005. Our objective in this paper is to assess how far this fall was linked to the creation of better paying jobs and the increase in education. We find that earnings rose rapidly in the period from 1998 to 2005, by 64% for men and by 55% for women. While education, particularly at the post secondary level, is associated with far higher earnings there is no evidence that the increase in earnings that occurred over the period from1998 to 2005 is due to increased returns to education or increased levels of education. In contrast there is very strong evidence, for all levels of education, that the probability of having a public sector job approximately halved over the period from 1991 while the probability of having a job in a small firm increased very substantially. In 1991/92 a male worker with secondary education had a 7 per cent probability of being employed in a small firm, by 2005/06 this had increased to 20 per cent which was higher than the probability of being employed by the public sector. Employment in small firms, which is the low paying occupation within the urban sector, increased from 2.7 to 6.7 percent of the population, an increase from 225,000 to 886,000 employees. Jobs in total have been increasing in line with the population but the proportion of relatively low paying ones increased markedly from 1998/99 to 2005/06. The rises in income that occurred over this period were due almost entirely to increases in earnings rates, for given levels of education, across all job types particularly among the unskilled. Why unskilled earnings rates rose so rapidly is unclear. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-01&r=afr |
| By: | BOUARÉ Issa; KUEPIE Mathias; MISANGUMUKINI Nicaise |
| Abstract: | Dans le cadre de cette étude, nous nous intéressons aux déterminants familiaux économique et culturels de l’échec scolaire primaire au Mali. Pour ce faire, nous mobilisons les données de l’enquête ELIM-2006 qui dispose d'un module sur les dépenses et la consommation permettant de mesurer avec finesse le niveau économique des ménages. Les analyses économétriques montrent que le capital culturel (mesuré par le niveau d'éducation moyens des adultes du ménage) a un effet bien plus important sur l'échec scolaire que le capital économique. Ceci implique, sur le plan politique, que l’Etat et les acteurs de développement ne doivent pas seulement agir sur les coûts financiers de l’éducation, mais également et davantage sur les « barrières culturelles », notamment les difficultés que les familles les moins dotées en capital éducatif ont à pouvoir aider et encadrer leurs enfants dans leurs études. Ceci est encore plus vrai pour les filles. Une mesure efficace pourrait être d’une part, la sensibilisation et l’information des parents peu ou pas éduqués sur l’importance de l’école, et d’autre part, un soutien scolaire gratuit pour les enfants des milieux culturellement défavorisés. |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2010-02&r=afr |
| By: | Chiara Cazzuffi; Alexander Moradi |
| Abstract: | Using a complete panel of Ghanaian cocoa producers’ societies in the 1930s, we investigate whether group interaction problems threatened i) capital accumulation, ii) cocoa sales and iii) cooperative survival as membership size increased. We find evidence of group interaction problems. The net effect, however, is positive indicating gains from economies of scale as cooperatives expanded their membership. |
| Keywords: | cooperatives, firm survival, collective action problems, Ghana |
| JEL: | J54 N57 Q13 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-18&r=afr |
| By: | Rachel Glennerster; Edward Miguel; Alexander Rothenberg |
| Abstract: | Scholars have pointed to ethnic and other social divisions as a leading cause of economic underdevelopment, due in part to their adverse effects on public good provision and collective action. We investigate this issue in post-war Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries. To address concerns over endogenous local ethnic composition, and in an advance over most existing work, we use an instrumental variables strategy relying on historical ethnic diversity data from the 1963 Sierra Leone Census. We find that local ethnic diversity is not associated with worse local public goods provision across a variety of outcomes, regression specifications, and diversity measures, and that these “zeros” are precisely estimated. We investigate the role that two leading mechanisms proposed in the literature – enforcement of collective action by strong local government authorities, and the existence of a common national identity and language – in generating these perhaps surprising findings. |
| JEL: | H41 O12 O55 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16196&r=afr |
| By: | Bruce Baker (Coventry University) |
| Abstract: | Sierra Leone's civil war left development urgently needing security and security urgently needing reform. The initial UK response was un-coordinated until the Poverty Reduction Strategy 2004 which highlighted the importance of security. The SSR review, in response, made the security-development link explicit and all state security providers together with the judiciary, oversight mechanisms and relevant NGOs were brought together under the Justice Sector Development Programme. This review of police reform, questions its understanding of the political context; the wisdom of ignoring chiefs and commercial security; and the poorly conceived community policing programme. Overall the UK's most important police reform programme proved too ambitious. This work was supported in part by Global COE Program "The Transferability of East Asian Development Strategies and State Building", Mext, Japan. |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:10-06&r=afr |
| By: | TENIKUE Michel |
| Abstract: | Many developing countries face a pro-male gender gap in schooling, as boys are more likely to be enrolled at school than girls. This paper examines whether the current enrolment gap prevails equally both among children with a "regular" and an "irregular" schooling history. Children with a Regular schooling history are those who completed primary educa- tion between the ages of 12 and 15 years. Children with an Irregular schooling history are the rest. We investigate the gender gap in schooling empirically using data provided by the 2001 Cameroon Household Survey. The empirical framework allows for a dierent gender efect among regular and irregular children. It also accounts for selection into the two groups. Results show no male-female diference among regular children. Among irregular children however, females are more likely to stay out of schools. Our results suggest that, female children are given a schooling possibility to start with but are more exposed to dropping out if they display any form of irregularity in the course of their education. |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2010-03&r=afr |
| By: | Danila Serra; Pieter Serneels; Abigail Barr |
| Abstract: | Economists have traditionally assumed that individual behavior is motivated exclusively by extrinsic incentives. Social psychologists, in contrast, stress that intrinsic motivations are also important. In recent work, economic theorists have started to build psychological factors, like intrinsic motivations, into their models. Besley and Ghatak (2005) propose that individuals are differently motivated in that they have different “missions,” and their self-selection into sectors or organizations with matching missions enhances organizational efficiency. We test Besley and Ghatak’s model using data from a unique cohort study. We generate two proxies for intrinsic motivations: a survey-based measure of the health professionals philanthropic motivations and an experimental measure of their pro-social motivations. We find that both proxies predict health professionals’ decision to work in the non-profit sector. We also find that philanthropic health workers employed in the non-profit sector earn lower wages than their colleagues. |
| JEL: | C93 I11 J24 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:10-04&r=afr |